Planetary Sciences and Astrogeology - Science topic

Planning to conduct some research on Mars and Venus. Targeting tectonic/large scale structural features on Venus and potential mineralisation areas on Mars. What are the available (preferably free of cost and reliable) data sources?

Need weight of each component and their dimensions, also mass and velocity data of any of ion bombardment thrusters ( otherwise any other thruster data too is welcome )?

Supposedly Pioneer 10 will fly to the nearest Alfa Centauri constellation for about 10,000 years.

Will humanity manage to build a new generation of space ships that will be able to overcome such huge distances in the galaxy many times faster?

When could this happen?

Please, answer, comments. I invite you to the discussion.

Can anybody please share the IDL source code for Hapke photometric modeling?

Thank you,

Insoluble organic matter residues are the remaining insoluble organic material after extreme acid digestion of the extraterrestrial material. They contain complex morphologies that exist as either: isolated spherical compounded shapes; hollow spherical objects or irregular (non spherical) shapes which internally often contain the same conglomeration of spherical features. Please see attached DF STEM images of some of these morphologies from two organic rich carbonaceous chondrites. As the residues are a product of the removal of surrounding mineralogy (i.e. context in situ is lost), connected features on the submicron to micron scale in the images, by approximation, should only be considered. Thanks!   

What is the equation that relates the temperature at the surface of the mars as a function of time and position?

 is there any thing else that would help me?

As we know about NEXT ion thruster developed by NASA and simulate thrusters by different organizations, they have a common design technique-  a bombardment region which releases ions for thrust ( known as anode) and a sprayer system known as cathodic neutralizer. So how do I calculate mass flow rate from both of them ( mass output from them) to produce thrust or are their any specific calculations or specifications or values already present about previously developed ion thrusters mass flow rate ?

Good day!

Tell me please PC software, allowing you to monitor the situation in astronomical solar system, galaxy.

I have the phone programme Planetarium. Unfortunately I cannot find it for PC. Perhaps there is a site where you can some things to do.

Dolia Vadym.

I want to model transient liquid water on subsurface Mars, and want a more accurate result with realistic Mars conditions.

The only closest information I can find is:

Perchlorate on Mars: a chemical hazard

and a resource for humans by Alfonso F. Davila

I'm looking for algae that could survive in extreme environment conditions, such as:

Maybe someone knows any good publications or books about the algae that can survive in extreme conditions? 

Methane Pluming has been characterized on the Mars surface by NASA scientists? May that evidence be related to the presence of methanogens under the soil?

I seldom find very disparate values for the orbital elements and other parameters of the Solar System planets and satellites, depending on the source.

Where could we found the most updated and accurate values?

Looking for useful references for planetary volcanism (volcanoes on the Moon, Mars Io, Venus etc). I need them to be as recent as possible.

Dears,

I'm trying to compute probable region of sunglint to use as a mask in the processing of remote sensing data. There are several methods for sunglint flaging using spectral characterizations, but I found only one reference to flag sunglint regions based on observation geometry (Mailhe et al. 2004, attached); that is more suitable for my application, but I'm having a hard time to perform the calculations.

One of the information required is the Earth-Sun unit vector for the epoch of observation; In the calculations of Mailhe et al. 2004, the J2000 Geocentric Celestial Inertial frame (GCI) is used for the computations. One possible source of such data is the NAIF SPICE toolkit (http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/); what I understood from the documentation is that the implemented J2000 reference frame actually represents the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), that has its origin on the barycenter of the solar system, whereas the GCI J2000 has its origin on the barycenter of Earth. Nevertheless, the documentation also states that all calculations are relative to two selected bodies, with the origin playing a limited role (basically correction). In summary, I could not understand if the data from this source is appropriate for the calculations. The paper from Russel (1971, on the link) show an approximate formulation for GCI (but not J2000) with accuracy that should suffice for this application, but again I'm not sure if this is adequate. Perhaps it does not make much difference if the reference frame is kept constant through the computations?

The radial direction of the pixel center and the radial direction of the satellite must also be calculated. I followed the guidelines provided by Hapgood (1992, attached) to convert geodetic latitude, longitude and altitude from spherical to cartesian representation and them to GEI (which I understood is a synonym to GCI). I assume that this would be compatible with the Earth-Sun vector determination of Russel; nevertheless, the SPICE toolkit could also be used for these transformation to keep compatibility of reference frames if the SPICE Earth-Sun vector should be used.

Can anyone provide me with references and/suggestions about the sunglint geometry and Earth-Sun vector calculation?

Best regards,

Hi, does anyone know a good source for vertical atmospheric profiles of the main species for Venus (molar fractions of CO2, N2, SO2 vs height), from 0 to 100 km? It can be both measurements and model results.

Thanks a lot in advance! -Andi

Solivagant (nomadic) planets are roaming the interstellar space. Depending on the steepness of the mass ditribution law, There may be significantly more substellar objects in the vicinity of the Sun than there are normal stars. A few nearby extremely cool object of super-Jupiter mass have been discovered (e.g., one with WISE). Despite the absence of light, such systems of planetary mass may be teeming with life. According to M. Eubanks, more solivagant planets will be observed in the future with JWST, ALMA and SPICA. My calculations show that the tidal heating of Earth generated by the Moon may presently come up to ~5 TW. A heat source of this order can sustain a massive subsurface ocean on a lonely exoearth for gigayears. The question is, how to observationally verify that nearby solivagant planets rapidly rotate? The spin rate of some stars has been determined photometrically from the modulations caused by persistent features (dark or hot spots) on the photospheres. Would that be the best way to observe the spin of very cold planets? Are there other possibilities?

When were brought the rock Moon samples, during the Apollo missions, the analysis of the resetting ages showed an unexpected fact. The maximum in the age distribution was at 3.95 Ga. This led some authors to propose that there had been a catastrophic event, about 4 Ga ago, in which a large number of impactors fell on the Moon. This event was called the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB). Later was attempted to extend this event to other planets, and even the entire solar system. However it is possible that this event never occurred, and that the evidence in favor it is not more than a bias in the data, In the attached file I propose the possibility that the late heavy bombardment is only a bias in the data and not an actual event.

I am trying to verify a three body simulation and for that need actual planetary position data from out solar system, but I cannot find any. I need it in barycentric coordinates, does anyone know where to find such? It would also be ok if they were from another simulation, if this is verified. Thank you in advance!

 In her book, Influences: Art, Optics, and Astrology in the Italian Renaissance, Mary Quinlan–McGrath uses as one of her examples the Astrological Vault of the Sala dei Pontefici. The original version was commissioned by Leo X and apparently designed by Raphael just prior to his death in 1520. With the Sun located centrally for astrological reasons, the ordering of the remaining celestial bodies is Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Does anyone know of evidence as to how the sequence for Mercury and Venus was established in this case? The ordering of the planets with respect to their distance from Earth was under considerable discussion at this time.

 

 

Is there a technical reason for not taking the data or the lack of data is due to the lack of interest in the information it might contain?

If you want to study dust disks around nearby stars, there is data from Herschel and Alma in infrared and radio range that enables spectroscopic studies of molecular transitions but there is no data taken at shorter wavelengths to study other kinds of processes. Why is that?

When a reentry vehicle moves fast in the atmosphere, the atmosphere around the vehicle will be ionized due to aerodynamic heat. Sometimes communication blackout may happen. I would like know how the plasma sheath affects the propagation of radio waves. What happens when a radio wave passes the plasma sheath? Will there be a time delay, fading, or noise in the receiving signals? Any related answers will be highly appreciated.

Are the chemical reactions that take place on earth really influenced by gravity or are they affected by another planet or satellite around the earth?

What are the key elements for C-based complex life?

I understand that we use some sort of spectroscopy of the incident light coming from an explanatory system, but what are the principle techniques behind doing so? Are there any other methods used to detect liquid water other than spectroscopic analysis? I am especially curious about any good published papers that you all might know of pertaining to these mechanisms.

To describe how bright a star seems.

The entire universe originated from a single point after the Big Bang. Then how can we explain the time before big bang?

I feel we need to re evaluate this idea that we have been hearing since we were in high school!

10 amino acids were synthesized in the 1953 Miller-Urey experiments. Those 10 amino acids have also been found in meteorites and can create simple prebiotic life. Those 10 amino acids tend to arise at relatively low temperatures and pressures in 2009 Higgs-Pudritz work, and are chemically simple, so, it seems that they are thermodynamically destined to occur wherever they can.

Is it physically possible for a huge Jupiter-like exoplanet to harbor this kind of moon? Could have been formed in the protoplanetary disk or could be Neptune-like planets that have been trapped during migration towards to, or away from, the central star?

Similar in size, energy received from its host star and star type etc.

Scientists have suggested an experimental system to study serpentinization and look at chemical reactions that pave the way for life. Ref- NASA Astrobiology Group.

Over the Solar System, the relative isotopic concentrations of any one chemical element are not the same at different celestial objects and, even, at different localities of any one celestial object. Such a phenomenon is characteristic for many chemical elements. It is known for the Earth, Moon, and other planets and their satellites, for example, for Mars and Titan. What is, in your opinion, the cause (nature) of this phenomenon?

Many craters on Mars have dark dunes, Firsoff, Gale, Nicholson, Becquerel and others. Some reports state that these are basaltic sands. ResearchGate contributor Giovanni Leone directed me to the paper by Kerber, et al., on pyroclasts dispersal from Apollinaris Patera. This information is helpful, but it does not address the “islands” of dark dunes within segregate sections of these and other craters. Are these dark sands aeolian dispersion or are they local eroded volcanic intrusions via sub-crater fracturing?

I imagine the rotation of a gaseous planet smoother compared to that of a solid planet, altering space-time softly with less nodules, and for that with an even orbit (with an uniforming place for the materials, forming rings).

I proposed that cometary unidentified emissions are belonged to photoluminescence of frozen hydrocarbon particles (Simonia, Ap&SS 2007, and AJ 2011). I intend to extend my theory to ISON comet as well.

Reference: In the paragraph adjoining 'Inner core" image

It refers to the existence of the big bang, and it predicts the predominal energy that is universally spread out.

Our deepest silicate rock samples from the Earth, are generally not considered to be filtered for grain size by the transporter (usually kimberlite), yet are sometimes accompanied by megacryst suites attributed to high pressure crystallisation from melts or fluids. In the Navajo volcanic field USA, transporting pipes might exercise a control on fragmentation and grain size, and in one locality (the Thumb minette) olivine grains in peridotite rock reach astonishing grain sizes of several cm. The term "megacryst", was used to originally describe them (S Ehrenberg 1974) , but is perhaps not the right word, as these are polycrystalline peridotites (with garnet). Such coarse (or "ultracoarse") grain sizes appear to be outside of the ranges of conventional statistical models for mantle grain size. Some consider grain size of the mantle to have evolved with time (Solamatov and Reese, 2008: file attached).

What controls the average grain size of Earth's mantle, and should it be the same on other terrestrial planets like Mars?

Robert Lanza’s Biocentrism Theory

The iron meteor that created Barringer Crater was estimated to have had a diameter of ~30.5 meters or about 1/5 of the original depth of the crater, ~174 meters.

So far the Cassini solstice mission has provide a wealth of priceless data about Titan, and about Saturn as well. Today's (10th July) a new flyby started (T-92), on planning it was called a "10-pointer” radar flyby and "one of the two scientifically most significant Titan flybys for Radar during the Solstice mission".

During Cassini's current (T-92) flyby, will we see any dramatic changes in Titan's northern hemisphere? What if we found that Titan lakes are changing with a rate higher than what we though based on analysis from previous data?

- Quotes are taken from

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/saturntourdates/

- Current flyby images are stored online via

Recent images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera provide evidence that the lunar crust may be pulling apart in certain areas. The images reveal small trenches less than a kilometer in length, and less than a few hundred meters wide. Only a small number of these features, known as graben, have been discovered on the lunar surface.

Give info